More on Honduras

I previously posted about Obama opposing the forced removal of the Honduras president. I didn’t look into it deep enough then but have done a little more research and found a few interesting articles…

http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/07/article-239-of-the-honduran-constitution.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/honduras-removal-president-legal-constitution-has-vaccine

http://www.redcounty.com/memo-president-obama-read-honduran-constitution

Under the Honduras constitution no resolution can be made to extend the length a president can server. This was done to ensure the country wouldn’t end up with a life long president whom eventually acquired enough power to become a dictator. This is a very common problem in that area and developing nations.

Since the president did bring forth a resolution to extend the term of the presidency he violated their constitution. Being he violated it he was required to cease his position post haste. He did not do this so the Honduras Supreme Court ordered the military in to remove their would be dictator. Being a body of government ordered in the military to remove a corrupt head of state this situation doesn’t relaly qualify as a military coup.

A military coup is generally considered either a branch of the military or the military itself moving into remove some or all entities of government and claim power for either the military itself or the branch of government that ordered them in. In these cases the people being removed generally haven’t broken any laws, they are simply in the way of somebody else claiming power. In this situation a replacement was put in as the president the position of president wasn’t removed.

The real gray area here is the president was simply exiled from the country. This seems to ignore the idea of a trail being held and is where the real problem starts. Had the Honduras Supreme Court arrested the former president and put him on trial it wouldn’t have given everybody ammunition against what they did. Personally I detest the fact that they simply exiled a man without trial but at the same time I congratulate them on removing an obviously corrupt politician from power. Hence I’m torn on this issue but am leaning towards the side of the Honduras Supreme Court since the evidence of what the former president did is a matter of public record and hence proof is available.

This is certainly a hairy situation with nobody lacking some amount of guilt. But there is a point that I can not find argument with, if a government official is actively violating the law he is sworn to uphold and protect he must be removed. This is why the United States Bill of Rights specifially states the people have the right to bear arms. The people are the final check and balance in this country against tyranny.

Economics 101: Why Mexico isn’t Buying American Guns

I found a great post over on The Firearms Blog showing why the Mexican drug cartels aren’t buying their guns from America…

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/442059/100c35fa92/1641502434/35c8c21797/

It comes down to simple economics. Why would a drug cartel spend anywhere from $850.00 to $1,100.00 for a semi-automatic AR-15 when they could spent less than $100.00 on a fully automatic AK-47? Furthermore other countries are more than willing to sell the guns to Mexico whereas extra work must be done to get them from America.

Source: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/07/14/which-gun-prices-what-they-are-surley-mexican-criminals-are-looking-elsehwere/

Massachusetts Trying to Ban Public Firearm Training

I have to say you disappear for a good chunk of a week and all sorts of horrible news pops up on the horizon. Take this gem for instance…

http://navlog.org/outlaw_training.pdf

Massachusetts has a bill moving through that is meant to ban public firearm training. The bill would require any firearm exhibition for have several requirements including one certified firearms safety instructor for ever 20 attendees and a “safety” plan submitted to local police.

Anyways if you’re reading this and life in Massachusetts you have to start getting on the horn with your representatives and tell them to work against this bill.

To Wyoming and Back

As I said last week I’d be gone for roughly a week. Anyways I was in Wyoming meeting my girlfriend’s family and getting a good feel for the area. I have to say it’s a nice place with some great scenery. I know I have to head out there prairie dog shooting someday.

To the point I came across some good gun related fortune. I found small pistol primers. So now I’m 4,000 primers richer. They have a Sportsman’s Warehouse there and since I was on vacation I was able to beat all the people who were working their jobs to the store and grab my limit of primers (2,000 per day so I had to go there two days). I also found a butt load of primers at Rocky Mountain Discount Outfitters but they were gouging on them pretty severely.

Anyways it was good to see primers in stock for a change. It’s been far too long.

Vampire Earth Winter Duty is Out

OK I’m a huge science fiction geek and one of my favorite collection of novels is The Vampire Earth series. Needless to say the eighth title, Winter Duty, is out…

http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Duty-Novel-Vampire-Earth/dp/0451462742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247513437&sr=8-1

No it’s not a referral link I just brought up the Amazon link because I like Amazon (I bought a copy for the Kindle myself). For those of you unfamiliar with the series here is a thumbnail summary. An alien race called the Kurians have overtaken Earth. They came to our planet to feed off of a life force known as vital aura. This life force is stronger ins sentient races hence why our planet is on the list to be invaded. They consume vital aura through their avatars known as Reapers whom feed off of our blood and transfer our aura to a controlling Kurian (hence the legend of vampires).

You won’t find any lame ass sparkling vampires and teenage angst in this series. It’s mostly balls the the wall action as the series follow the life of David Valentine a member of the resistance. The story is great and I really like Mr. Knight’s writing style. I also like the fact that these books have all been consistently great page turners.

Happy Birthday AK-47

It’s that time of year again where we say happy birthday to the worlds most famous rifle, the AK-47. Wired did a long write up on the iconic rifle…

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2009/07/ak-47/

I think everybody should own an AK-47. They are amazing rifles with a lot of history behind them. And I know many people consider Mikhail Kalashnikov a death dealer for making the rifle but I consider him an engineering genius who made a device with the intention of driving an foreign invader from his country.

33 State Attorneys General File Amicus Brief

Good news 33 state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief opposing the gun bans of Chicago and Oak Park…

http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/litigation/NRAAmicusFinal.pdf

It’s nice to see Minnesota’s own Lori Swanson has signed on as well. Hopefully this will further to goal of getting the unconstitutional handgun bans repealed.

Source: http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=12654

I Think the AR-15 Bubble has Burst

At least here in Wyoming where I’m vacationing. I decided to look around at a few gun stores to see what I could find. I found a couple boxes of small pistol primers and some bulk Remington .22LR boxes. But I noticed something odd at least one store is having a 5% off sale on all AR-15 style rifles. And every store I’ve visited so far has a ton of AR-15s in stock. It appears as though the bubble is bursting.